AXLER@Upenn-1100@sri-unix.UUCP (08/08/83)
From: AXLER@Upenn-1100 (David M. Axler - MSCF Applications Mgr.)
You're probably right about the '36 trip, though in general I'd trust
Warner over Moskowitz for faanish history.
Is Philly dull? Or, is it just PhilCon? It's unfair to judge either
on the basis of the other. But I'd agree with your (implicit) point that, if
the PSFS puts on a convention that doesn't interest you, then the city may
be a dull place for fans.
You comment on the number of US fans who went to SeaCon, but ignore sever-
al key factors: 1) The very number of convention-attending fans in the US
made package tours to SeaCon possible; do you really think that this would
be equally possible for the fans of Britain or France, for instance?
2) The relative income levels of fans here and abroad, esp. when you also
take into account the dollar-to-foreign-currency conversions. 3) How many
Americans went to HeiCon -- the single example of a WorldCon that was held in
a non-English-speaking country?
Another factor contributing to some extent to what you term parochialism
is the changes in airline rates. The discounts we see here, especially on
trips to Europe, are not always equally available on the other side.
As you say, there has "been damned little bidding for the Worldcon from
nEsl's", but you're not dealing with the whys and wherefores of this fact.
Is the nature of Esl fandom sufficiently different from that in nEsl countries
to make the two incompatible? Is the overall size of Esl fandom (or even
just US [+Canadian?] fandom so great that nEsl sites feel that they have no
chance to win a bid? I dunno, but I suspect that there are a lot of factors
that are affecting this matter.
--Dave Axlerdavidl@orca.UUCP (David Levine) (08/12/83)
This article seems to be the beginning of what could become a long discussion
on the nature of non-English SF. My French drill instructor for one semester
was a great SF reader and somewhat fannish, and he told me that there was very
little SF written in French, and what there was wasn't very good. Most SF
published in France is translated from the English. About a year ago I acquired
a copy of Damon Knight's book of translations of French SF (the title eludes me
at the moment, but was something descriptive like "French Science Fiction
Stories") and was not particularly thrilled by the overall quality. I had read
one of these stories in the French, so I have reason to believe that it was the
stories themselves, and not the translation, which was at fault.
Comments I have read and heard from other multiligual fen lead me to believe
that there is very little SF in non-English-speaking countries, and therefore
very little fan activity. This may stem from the US's history of science and
technology. (The question this raises is: what is the current state of SF in
Japan?)
-- David D. Levine (...decvax!tektronix!tekecs!davidl) [UUCP]
(...tekecs!davidl.tektronix@rand-relay) [ARPA]